A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of packaging and, in particular, to packaging for pourable food and other items.
B. Prior Art
A wide range of pourable products, such as candies, cereals, laundry soaps, and many other products, are dispensed in cardboard boxes. To access the contents, a user must generally open the top of the box. Sometimes the contents are held in a wax paper bag inside the box, and the bag must be opened as well. To store the contents, the user closes the bag and then closes the box.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,373 discloses a novel box for conveniently storing and dispensing pourable items. The box has a back wall and a slide connected to the back wall. The slide has a slide opening and two side tabs extending from the slide. A front wall with an opening is connected to the back wall. The box also has an interior supporting wall having first and second side slits. The slide is disposed within the box, with each of the tabs being inserted into a corresponding one of the slits. The box has an open position in which the openings are aligned and in which the contents of the box may be poured out. The box also has a closed position for storing the contents.
A packaging system for storing and dispensing pourable items has a box with an opening. An inner liner has a removable portion defined by at least one line of weakness, the removable portion being positioned adjacent to the opening in the box. The packaging system has a first mode for longer term storage in which the removable portion remains intact to seal the inner liner, and a second mode for dispensing the contents of the inner liner through the opening in which the removable portion has been at least partially removed from the inner liner.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a box for conveniently storing and dispensing pourable items has a front wall having an opening and an inside surface, a back wall, a first and a second side wall, a top and a bottom flap, and a slide that is in contact with the inside surface of the front wall, the slide having an opening. The front wall, back wall, first and second side walls, and top and bottom flaps are interconnected to form a box. The slide is movable between an open position in which the slide opening substantially aligns with the front wall opening, and a closed position in which the slide opening is entirely out of alignment with the front wall opening, thereby closing the box. An inner liner inside the box has a removable area defined by one or more lines of weakness. The removable area is positioned adjacent to at least a portion of the front wall opening.
The one or more lines of weakness may be perforations, such as microperforations, or may be other lines of weakness such as scoring. The removable area may include a tab for convenient removal of the area from the inner liner. The inner liner may be a bag, a pouch, or other type of container for holding material. While in most embodiments the inner liner has thin, flexible walls made from such materials as wax paper, cellophane, metalized mylar or the like, in special embodiments the inner liner may have more thicker and/or more rigid walls.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the front wall comprises a plurality of front wall openings. The slide may have more than one opening, too, so that the contents of the box may be poured from more than one opening simultaneously. Alternatively, there may be a plurality of open positions in each of which at least one slide opening is in alignment with at least one front wall opening. The optional inner liner may also include a plurality of removable portions corresponding in position to the plurality of front wall openings on the box. The openings in the inner liner and the box may be of a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
In one embodiment of the invention, the box is formed of sulfite cellulose cardboard. In other embodiments, the box is formed of plastic, or from a variety of other materials that are suitable for making boxes.
A method of dispensing a pourable item from a box includes forming a packaging system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The user moves the slide to the open position, then removes the removable portion of the inner liner. The user then pours at least a portion of the contents of the inner liner out of the box.
The present application addresses numerous other inventions, including alternative package designs that may be used with or without inner liners as described above. For example, the packages may have two or more independent openings. Separate slides may be provided for each of the openings, such that each opening may be open and/or shut independently of the other(s). The package may be provided with a stop so that the user cannot accidentally pull the slide(s) all the way out of the package by accident. That is, when the slide reaches the fully open position, the stop prevents the slide from opening further.
A multiple-opening package may have one or more compartment separators. With independent compartments, different products may be stored within the package. The user can open one opening to dispense one of the products, without opening the other opening(s) to dispense the other products.
In another alternative package design, the package may have two or more openings, with two or more corresponding inner liners within the package to store different products. When the inner liners are bags, the use of a compartment separator within the package is optional, since the bags themselves serve to keep the products separate.
Other features may be incorporated into the package design. The liner may have a removable portion, defined by one or more lines of weakness or by other means such as a removable sticker. The removable portion of the liner is aligned with the box opening.
The system can optionally include a cartridge, into which the liner is affixed, for insertion into the box. The cartridge serves to maintain the liner in the proper position within the box.
As another option, the system can include a sound module. As the box is opened, the sound module is activated. The sound module can play music, an advertising message, and/or any combination of sounds for that sound modules can generate.
In one particular embodiment of the invention, a system for conveniently storing and dispensing pourable items has a front wall with an opening and an inside surface, a back wall, a first and a second side wall, a top and a bottom flap and a slide that is in contact with the inside surface of the front wall, said slide having an opening. The front wall, back wall, first and second side walls, and top and bottom flaps are interconnected so as to form a box. The slide is movable between an open position in which the slide opening substantially aligns with the front wall opening and a closed position in which said slide opening is entirely out of alignment with the front wall opening, thereby closing the box. An inner liner inside said box has a removable area defined by one or more lines of weakness. The removable area is positioned adjacent to at least a portion of the front wall opening. The system also has a retaining cartridge for the inner liner. The package may have more than one opening and corresponding slide, in which case multiple inner liners and retaining cartridges may be used. Alternatively, a single retaining cartridge that retains multiple inner liners may be used.
Related embodiments may have one or more other features. The bag may include lines of weakness, which may be perforations. Alternatively, instead of lines of weakness, the bag may simply be made of a material through which the user can cut an opening with a knife or other cutting tool. The cartridge may have four sides, three sides, or even two sides. A one-sided cartridge is also possible. The system may include a liner retention band that typically extends about the cartridge, to hold the bag within the cartridge. The system may include a sound module. In one embodiment, the sound module is activated when the slide is lifted into the open position, to play sounds that have been stored within the module, such as voices, music and the like. In another embodiment, graphics are printed on the slide such that when the slide is in the closed position, the graphics are visible through the opening in box.
Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from a review of the Detailed Description below, from the drawings, and from the claims.